Preparation of blended fibrous materials



w. A. HUNTER ETAL 2,842,804

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 15, 1958 PREPARATION OF BLENDED FIBROUS MATERIALSOriginal Filed April 15; 1954 y 1958 w. A. HUNTER ET AL 2,842,804

PREPARATION OF BLENDED FIBROUS MATERIALS Original Filed April 15. 1954 5Sheets-Sheet 4 ly 15, 1 w. A. HUNTER ETAL 2,842,804

PREPARATION OF BLENDED FIBROUS MATERIALS Original Filed April 15. 1954 I5 Sheets-Sheet 5 United States Patent PREPARATION (3F BLENDED FIBROUSMATERIALS William Aldred Hunter and Frank Singleton, Accrington,England, assignors to T. M. M. (Research) Limited, Oldham, England 11Claims. (Cl. 19-146) Our invention relates to a method of producingblended fibrous materials, this application being a division of ourapplication Serial No. 423,388, filed April 15, 1954, entitledPreparation of Fibrous Materials. The objects of the invention,generally speaking, are the provision of improved methods of preparingfor processing, e. g., spinning, a blended mixture of two or moredifferent fibrous materials (which term is employed herein to denotefibres of different kinds, grades, qualities, colours orothercharacteristics), such processes being suitable for continuousoperation upon ingredients taken directly from the bale.

Our present invention covers methods which are improvements upon thosedisclosed in our application Serial No. 302,914 filed August 6, 1952,now U. S. Patent 2,816,327, for Improvements relating to the Blending ofTextile Fibrous Materials. The said application covers an apparatus andprocess in which different fibrous ingredients are blended with a highdegree of intimacy of admixture, this involving the feeding of aplurality of ingredient materials to separate reception and deliveryunits; the material in each unit is fed therefrom upon a conveyor whichreceives the material from each unit in turn in finely divided form, sothat the different ingredient materials are superposed one upon anotherThis material is stripped from the conveyor and maybe subjected tofurther operations.

.Our said application Serial No; 423,388 describes apparatus and processof the character just referred to in which various improvementsthereupon are provided. Particularly, a plurality of opening devices areprovided, which may be equal in number to the different ingredientswhich will be blended in the most common practice. The variousingredients may and commonly Will be opened separately thereby and willthenv be conveyed to the appropriate reception and delivery units. Theseunits will commonly be equal in number to the opening devices, and, ifdesired the different ingredient materials, separately opened, will beconveyed to different units, one ingredient material to each unit.

Such an arrangement will'be' adequate for the great majority of caseswhich arise in practice; a different distribution of the ingredientmaterials may however occasionally be called for. For example, with aplant having four openers and four reception units, it may be desired tochange from a four colour or other ingredient blend, to one of twocolours or other ingredients, so that only two of the four openers mayberequired. In such a case, according to the present invention, provisionis made for distributing the output of the tWo openers as desired, forexample, one ingredient to go to the first and third reception units andthe other ingredient to thesecond and fourth, which would be likely togive a better blend than would be obtained by cutting two receptionunits out of operation when two openers were cut out, so that eachopener would feed only one unit.

Other variations of the method of distribution of the 2,842,804 Batented July 15, 1958 2 opened material than that just referred to may bedesirable in different cases so that, for example, two or more openerswill feed a single reception unit, or the like; and it may sometimes bedesirable to arrange that one opener is to open more than oneingredient, as when, with a plant having four openers and four receptionunits, it is desired to change from a four material blend to one of fiveor more materials. Accordingly, provision is made in the presentinvention for the conveyanceof opened material from selected members ofthe plurality of opening devices to selected members of the same or agreater number of reception and delivery units, as desired.

In accordance with one embodiment of apparatus comprised in theinvention of our. said application Serial No. 423,388, means areprovided for subjecting each ingredient of the blend separately to anopening operation; for conveying each such opened. ingredient separatelyto one of the reception and discharge units referred to, specifically, agravity feed trunk, reserved for said ingredient, in quantities or at arate such as to'maintain a constant head of material therein; fordischarging the ingredient from each trunk at a metered rate toacontinuously travelling conveyor common to, all said trunks, thematerial being transferred to the conveyor under conditions in which theconveyor receives successively a substantially uniform dispersion oftufts of each ingredient; and removing the resultant blend ofingredients; from said conveyor. 7

The opened mass of blended fibres stripped from theconveyor ispreferably formed into a lap suitable for treatment in the cardingengine. The invention includes the optional interpolation of one or moresupplementary opening stages after the material leaves the conveyor, inwhich case the material is preferably transported from the conveyor tosaid additional opening stage or stages at a rate proportional to therate of throughput thereat,

A method employing apparatus of the character referred to isparticularly adapted to the preparation of blends of synthetic fibreswhich are already clean and in a fair state of openness and freedom fromclosely matted bodies, and in dealing with such material a singleopeningfoperation before blending is usually sufiicient. When, however,the same process is used for the treatment of cotton and other naturalfibres in the baled condition in which they are commonly received at themill, one or more supplementary opening and cleaning stages may bedesirable.

The. method embodied in our present application comprises, briefiystated, improvements upon the method described in our saidapplicationSerial No. 302,914,

now U. S, Patent 2,816,327, relating to the opening operations incombination and in sequence with the other described operations-forblending the material, etc. and

also to improvements in the method of distribution of the openedmaterial to different blending stations, as required by conditions indiiferent cases.

A plant in which the method herein claimed may be practiced isillustrated diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing and ishereinafter described in greaterv detail with reference thereto. In saiddrawings Fig. I is alongitudinal elevation of the plant and Figs. 2, 3,4 and S are partly sectional elevations drawn to an enilargedscalerespectively illustrating the preliminary open,

ing apparatus, the blending apparatus, the secondary opening apparatusand the final intensive opening apparatus, which are incorporated inthe' plant illustrated in Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating theseveral alternative methods of operating the apparatus according to theparticular blend required.

The plant shown in Fig. 1 includes apreliminary operiing apparatus A,theble'nding apparatus B, a secondary 3 opening apparatus C, a finalintensive opening apparatus D, and a lap-forming unit E.

The opening operation which constitutes the introductory stage of theprocessis preferably performed in respect of each individual ingredientof the blend upon the machine A (Fig. 2) comprising a travellinghorizontal feed lattice A upon which the fibrous material is depositedin the form of a layer of substantially'even thickness, aroller-and-pedal feed mechanism A which is adapted to receive the fleecefrom said lattice A and to present it at a controlled rate in a slightlycompacted condition to the teeth of a spiked lattice A by which thefibres are subjected to a combing operation (Fig. 2) whilst held betweensaid roller and pedals at A and conveyed forward as released therefrom.The rollerand-pedal mechanism referred to is of course a well knowndevice comprising the pedal 12, spring-pressed towards the roller 11,and against the fleece which passes between the roller and pedal.

The spiked lattice A is cleared at its delivery point by a suitablepneumatic or other conventional stripping apparatus A and the fibrousmaterial, now thoroughly opened by the aforesaid combing operation, istransported by a pneumatic delivery duct A to the blending station.

It will beunderstood that the machine designated generally by thereference letter A, and incorporating the components A to A ismultiplied in parallel (as shown in Fig. 1) according to the number ofdifferent ingredients which it is proposed to include in a given blend.It is desirable that the opening action performed at A upon eachingredient shall be regulated, by adjusting the relative speeds of theroller and pedal feed mechanism A and the spiked lattice A in suchmanner that all the ingredients are presented at the next stage of theprocess in substantially the same degree of openness.

The blending apparatus includes an individual reception unit in respectof each of the parallel deliveries of different ingredients, and it mayadvantageously take the form of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3, whichcomprises an assembly of measured-rate delivery units each of whichincludes a vertical gravity-feed trunk B at the head of which is arotary damped condenser cage B Said cage B is enclosed in a casing Bwhich is entered by one of the pneumatic feed ducts A at the deliveryend thereof, and all the cages B are aspirated by means of fans B B towhich connection is made with said cages by manifolds B B and theoutlets of which are seen at B B The otherwise open aperture at the baseof each gravity feed trunk B is controlled by a pair of metering rollersB", B", which are arranged to rotate in contrary directions so as todischarge the contents of the trunk at a rate governed by the speed ofrotation of the rollers.

The several trunks B are assembled with their respective dischargepoints side-by-side in alignment, so that their respective meteringrollers B are contained in a common horizontal plane and located atequally spaced intervals, above the upper horizontal course of ahigh-speed lattice conveyor B which is trained over driving rollers B Band with which there is associated a stripper element B by whichmaterial conveyed on the lattice is removed and directed into thepneumatic trunk B hereinafter referred to. Said lattice B bearsclosely-spaced cross-members B which are furnished with rows of spikes Binclined in the direction of travel of the lattice. Said spikes B may bedisposed over the lattice surface in a uniformly staggered formation soas to avoid an unduly marked tracking effect. Furthermore, said spikesare set with their tips so close to the metering rollers B that by theirnpalement by the former of the fringe of material which projectsbetween said rollers (as will be understood from the followingdescription), said spikes are individually charged with tufts of fibrescollected in-turn from the fringe at the metered discharge point of eachtrunk B The several moving parts of the apparatus are driven from twoelectric motors B B The shaft of the motor B is geared to one of thefans B by the belt B to the condenser cage driving rollers B B by thebelts B B B and B and'to the roller B of the conveyor lattice B by thebelt B. The shaft of the motor B drives the other of the fans B by thebelt B and to one of each of the pairs of metering rollers B, B' throughthe belt B a pulley B a shaft B, a pulley B, a belt B a pulley B bevelgears B B, a shaft B and individual belt-drives each of which includes apulley B a belt B a variable-speed gear B, a belt B a pulley B a shaft Band worm and worm-wheel gears B B The stripper B is conveniently gearedto the roller B by spur-gearing B B The delivery rate of the meteringrollers B", B may be regulated separately at each unit by suitableadjustment of the variable-speed device B.

The ingredient fibre received from the relative duct A by each cage B iscondensed thereon and caused to be deposited within the trunk B where asubstantially constant head is maintained by a photo-electric detectorcell B which is sensitive to the instantaneous quantity of material inthe trunk and which is connected by the line B to suitable electronicapparatus B serving to control a speed regulator (indicatedconventionally at B) associated with the lattice A of the primaryopening stage A, the arrangement being such that the rate of output atstage A is adjusted in accordance with the rate at which the fibre inthe trunk B is being discharged by the metering rollers B". It will beunderstood that suitable light sources (not shown) are positioned inalignment with cells B to illuminate the same when the passage of thelight is not obstructed by material in the trunks containing thesecells, atthe level thereof, so that none of such cells will be energisedso long as the column of material in its trunk stands at a level abovesuch cell.

Each trunk B also preferably contains a photo-electric detector cell Ball of the same being suitably connected by a line B to the electroniccontrol apparatus B, the cells B being near the bottoms of the trunks BIt will be understood that suitable sources of illumination (not shown)are arranged to illuminate cells B when the material in the trunkscontaining the same drops below the level of such cells. When,therefore, any trunk is nearly emptied of material, the level thereofhaving dropped below the cell B in such trunk, the energisation of suchcell will transmit a signal to the electronic control apparatus B. Thelatter has two functions. One is to control the speed regulator Bwhereby the speed of the motor operating the feed lattice A which feedsopened material to a particular feed trunk B is increased whenever thephoto-electric cell B is illuminated, because of the fact that materialin that trunk has dropped below the level of that cell, as noted above.The other function of control apparatus B is to stop the entire blendingapparatus whenever the level of material in any trunk falls below thelevel of the cell B thereof, so that a signal is sent from that cell tothe control apparatus B, as stated above. This function is accomplishedby the apparatus shown diagrammatically at B by a suitable conventionalarrangement whereby the motors B and B of the blending apparatus and themotors for all the feed lattices A are stopped or uncoupled whenever asignal as described is sent by a cell B to the control device B As hasalready been explained, the ingredient of each trunk B is discharged bythe rollers B (at a rate determined by the setting of the variable speeddevice B so that it emerges in the form of a downwardly-depending sheetthe fringe whereof is continuously combed by the tips of the spikes B ofthe lattice B The tufts of fibre which are impaled upon the latticespikes B at each successive pair of metering rollers B compose a tenuouslayer, so that when the spikes reach the stripping point at the conveyorroller B the lattice is carrying asmany superposed layers of differentingredients as there are'delivery units in the blending apparatus.

The composite mass of layered tufts is removed from the lattice by the'stripper B and discharged into the duct B whence the blended material inthe particular apparatus illustrated is conducted to the openingmachineC. The opening machine C (Fig. 4) comprises a cage condenser Cand a gravity feed trunk C which are respectively similar to thecomponents B and B of the blending apparatus, and a photo-electriccell Cin'said trunk C which is connected by a line B (Fig. 3) to electronicapparatus B serving to control a clutch B which is included in the shaftB between the pulleys B and B in the drive of the metering rollers B, Bof the feed trunks B the arrangement being such that in the event of thephoto-cell C being operated when the level of the material received inthe trunk C reaches the height thereof, delivery from the blendingapparatus to the opener is arrested by the stoppage of the meteringrollers B B f Y .The adjustment of the variable-speed units B by whichit is possible to effect a variation in the gear-ratio between thepulleys B and B in the metering roller drives, enables the rate ofdelivery of each ingredient to the blending lattice B to be determinedas may be necessary to provide any desired proportional admixture in theblend of materials discharged into the trunk B The several metereddelivery units B ,may be calibrated for use with specific kinds offibre, so that irrespective of ,itsdensity the required proportion of aningredient. in a given blendmay be achieved merely by regulating thespeed of the metering rollers B, B of the trunk B in question, by anadjustment of the relative unit B The output fromthe opener C isdelivered by aspiked lattice C having a stripper C whicl1 dischargesinto a pneumatic duct C The final opening stage in the apparatusillustrated is performed byan intensive opening machine D (Fig. 5 )1whichcomprises a cage condenser D which receives the blended fibres fromthe duct C a gravity feed trunk D a roller-and-pedal feed mechanism D abeater D a,

stripping cylinder D5, a cage condenser D and a pair of delivery rollersDi. ,(The intensive opening. machine D may be replaced by a conventionalscutcher',;the lattice of which is fed from the trunk D conveniently bymeansof a single delivery roller, from which thevmaterial is deliveredto the lap-forming rollers E E a I From the stage D, the fleece issuingfrom the rollers D is passed through the stack of calender rollers E ofthe lap-forming machine (Fig. 1) to be converted into a compactly-woundlap by the rollers E upon which the lap rests and by which it isrotated.

If desiredfand more particularly inthe treatment of synthetic staplefibre which does not-require the same de- ,7

gree of opening as natural fibres, the supplementary opening stage bythe machine 0 may be omitted, in,which case the pneumatic duct B(Fig. 1) isarranged to delivery directly into the inlet of thefinalopening stage D.

Due to the fact that theblending operation is performed at an earlystage in the process, and to the care which is taken to ensure that theseveral ingredients are individually opened before blending, it ispossible by the process hereinbefore described to attain an unusuallyhomogeneous dispersion of each ingredient throughout the mixture, sothat their individual characteristics aresubstantially incapable ofdetection and a yarn or fabric possessing a very high degree ofuniformity can be obtained.

The blending. apparatus B may be modified in the manner illustrateddiagrammatically in Fig. 6, for the purpose of enabling it to operatewith different distributions of opened material indifferent cases whenrequired or desired, as has been indicated above, In this figure-,athegravity feed-:trunks of a four trunkf'blending apparatus, which may besimilar in all respects to the trunks B shown in Fig. 3, are indicatedrespectivelyat BA, BB, BC and BD, which are connected by ducts. A to theprimary opening machines AA, AB, AC and AD respectively, the openingmachines and connecting ducts being the same as those shown in Fig. 1.Said ducts A tare also interconnected by transfer ducts, of which theduct I, as shown, connects the first two ducts A the duct T connects thefirst and third, the duct T connects the first and the fourth, while theduct T connects the see ond and the third, the duct T connects thesecond duct, A with the fourth duct A and the duct T connects the thirdwith the fourth duct A Theducts A are con trolled by valves AV and eachtransfer duct is controlled byavalveTV. i H r The apparatus thusmodified may be used to distribute opened material from any selectedmembers of- -the opening. devices, including all of them, to anyselected members of the group of feed trunks, including all of-them.vFor example, all of the valves AV being open and all of. the valves TVbeing closed, each-opener AA, AB, AC

, and AD delivers respectively to a separate trunk BA, BB, BC and BD ofthe blending apparatus, an arrange ment which may be used for blendingfour diiferent ing'redients, opened separately, as already described.

For another example, by suitably setting the valves, AV and TV, a singleopener may be connected to feedtwo or more delivery trunks and similarlytwo openers, for

example, may be connected to feed more than two trunks. This maybeuseful,. for instance, where a mill has installed a blending lineembodying four openers and blending apparatns having four gravity feedtrunks, and wishes to change from a four-ingredient to a two-ingredientblend.-

In such a case, it may be desirable to have two openers,

deliver toall four trunks, which should give a somewhat better blendthan merely having two openers cooperating I With twofeed trunks.Accordingly,openers AA andAB being used toopen the two ingredientsrespectively the valvesAV of the openers AA and ABwill be open and, thevalves AV of the: openers AC and: AD closed, valves-- TVin ductsT and Iwill be closed, leaving valve TV in duct T open, so that opener AA willdeliver to trunks BA and BC, and-valves'TV in ducts T and T will-beclosed leaving valve TV in duct T open, so that opener AB will deliverto trunks BBf aHd BD. r

In another arrangement, by suitably setting the neces: sary valves, thedelivery from any two openers can be fed to onetrunk of the blendingapparatus. Such an arclosed, aln this case, valve .AV in the duct Aleading from opener AA, being open, itis necessary to provide,

means for preventing material from opener AA being receivedby trunk BA,as well as by trunk BB. We have therefore indicated further valves VX,in the end portions of the four ducts A? adjacent to the trunks 'BA, BB,BC and BD. If, therefore, the valve VX, adjacent to trunk BA is closed,and the other three valves VX, left open, openers AA and AB will bothdeliver to trunk BB, while opener'AC delivers to trunk BC, and opener ADto trunk BD. Similarly, the delivery from any two openers can bedistributed between any three blending trunks. A

Another case to be covered is one in which, on occasion,

more ingredient materials are to be blended than the number of openersprovided in the plant. For example, with an opening and blendingapparatus built to provide for a blending of no more than fourmaterials, itmay be desired to change to a blend of five or moreingredients. In such a case, it may be advantageous to weigh'out thecorrect proportions of, say, two of the ingredients, and to deposit themin layers, one on top of the other, on a feed lattice of the latticeopener, for example, 'on the feed lattice A of the opener AA, Fig. 6. ofthe openers is connected to deliver only to its own particular blendingtrunk (opener AA to' trunk BA, opener AB to trunk BB, etc.) the resultwill be that trunk BA, for example, contains two different ingredients,while each of the other trunks contains one ingredient only. Thisarrangement is indicated in the diagram Fig. 6, where one ingredientfeed to opener -AA is indicated at X and the other at Y.

Similarly, it may occasionally be desirable, for reasons of economy orotherwise, to add a very small proportion of some different material toone or more, for example, or to all of the main ingredients of theblend, which can readily' be done by admixture of the added'and mainingredients on the feed lattices. The general practice,

however, is to'reserve each individual opener for a. separateingredient.

The above illustrations are given by way of example only, and it will beunderstood that the numbers of openers and blending trunks may bemodified to suit other particular requirements.

What we claim as our invention and'desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

1. The method of producing blended textile fibrous materials whichcomprises a continuous sequence of steps of subjecting a plurality ofdifferent ingredient materials to separate opening operations, adjustingsuch operations so as to give all the opened materials substantially thesame degree of openness, forwarding the opened materials simultaneouslyto a plurality of separate stations, there stacking each material inconditions of substantially controlled density and compacting it intothe form of a loose sheet, feeding the material from said stations atspeeds proportional to the proportions of the different materialsdesired in the blend, finely dividing the mate rial of each sheet, andcontinuously superposing the finely divided materials from the differentstations oneupon another.

2. The method of producing blended textile fibrous materials whichcomprises subjecting a plurality of ingredient materials to separateopening operations, adjusting such operations so as to give all theopened material a substantially uniform degree of openness, forwardingthe opened material to a plurality of separate stations, there stackingeach material in-conditionsof substantially constant density andcompacting the material into the form of loose sheets, feeding the samefrom said stations at speeds proportional to the proportions of thematerials compacted at such stations desired in the blend, finelydividing the same, and superposing the finely divided ma- If then, eachmaterials which comprises subjecting a plurality of ingredient materialsto separateopening operations, forwarding the opened material to aplurality of separate stations, stacking each material in conditions ofsubstantiallyconstant density and feeding the same from said stations atspeeds proportional to the proportions of the different ingredientsdesired in the blend, finely dividing the same, and superposing thefinely divided materials from the different stations one upon another.

5. The method of producing blended textile fibrous materials whichcomprises a continuous sequence of steps separately opening a pluralityof ingredient materials to substantially the same degree of openness,controlling the a feeding of such ingredients during such opening toeffect substantially the same degree of openness, continuouslytransferring the separately opened materials and progressing theseparately opened materials forwardly at speeds proportional to theproportions of the ingredients desired in the blend, and continuouslyfinely dividing and superposing all of the same, one upon another.

6. The method of producing blended textile .fibrous materials whichcomprises subjecting a plurality of ingredient materials to separateopening operations, forwarding the opened material to a plurality ofseparate stations, stacking each material in conditions of substantiallyconstant density and maintaining such materials at such stations undersubstantially constant density, feeding the same therefrom at speedsproportional to the proportions of the. materials received at suchstations desired in the blend, and finely dividing and collecting all ofthe same in'a composite mass.

7. The .method of producing blended textile fibrous materials composedof different ingredients which comprises a continuous sequence of stepssubjecting different parts of such material having particularcharacteristics to separate opening operations, controlling the feedingof such ingredients during such operations to effect substantially thesame degree of openness, continuously transferring the separately openedmaterials and progressing the separated opened materials forwardly atspeeds approximately proportional to the proportions of the materialthus separately opened desired in the blend, and finely dividing andcollecting all of the same in a composite mass.

8. The method of producing blended textile fibrous materials composed ofdifferent ingredients which comprises subjecting different parts of suchmaterial having particular characteristics to separate openingoperations, forwarding the opened material to a plurality of separatestations, stacking each material in conditions of substantially constantdensity and feeding the same from said stations at speeds approximatelyproportional to the proportions of the material thus separately openeddesired in the ,blend, finely dividing the same, and collecting thesame, one part superposed upon another, on a travelling conveyor.

9. The method of producing blended textile fibrous materials composed ofdifferent ingredients which comterials from the different stations oneupon another, and Y subjecting the resultant mass of superposedmaterials to a further opening operation.

3. The method ofproducing blended textile fibrous materials whichcomprises subjecting a plurality of ingredient materials to separateopening operations, for: warding the materials opened by such separateoperations to different stations of a number determined by blendingrequirements under different conditions, there stacking each material inconditions of substantially constant density and compacting the materialinto the form of loose sheets, feeding the same from said stations atspeeds proportional to the proportions of the materials compacted atsuch stations desired in the blend, finely dividing the same, andsuperposing the finely divided materials from the different stations oneupon another.

'4. The method of producing blended textile fibrous prises subjectingdifferent parts of such material having particular characteristics toseparate opening operations, forwarding the material thus separatelyopened to different stations of a number determined by blendingrequirements under different conditions, stacking each material inconditions of substantially constant density and finely dividing thematerial and collecting all of the same in a composite mass.

10. The method of producing blended textile fibrous emerging from saidstations, and collecting the same upon a travelling conveyor.

11. The method of prodrcing blended textile fibrous materials composedof diiferent ingredients which comprises subjecting different parts ofsuch material having particular characteristics to separate openingoperations, forwarding the material thus separately opened to aplurality of separate stations, stacking each material in conditions ofsubstantially constant density and advancing the material from saidstations, continuously finely dividing the same and collecting all of itsuperposed on a travelling conveyor, stripping the material from theconveyor, and subjecting it to a further opening operation.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSTainter July 30, 1867 Tyden Feb. 13, 1906 Butler Nov. 16, 1920 Tice July7, 1925 Benoit Oct. 3, 1933 Curley et al Oct. 13, 1936 Senior et a1.Jan, 12, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS Austria Aug. 25, 1908

